Workshop report: Law, human rights and civil society in Hong Kong


The SOAS China Institute (SCI) and Georgetown Center for Asian Law (GCAL) jointly hosted a closed-door workshop on law, human rights and civil society in Hong Kong in early December 2024 at the Center for Transnational Legal Studies in London.
The workshop was held to examine and debate the situation in Hong Kong as it approached the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. The participants discussed developments in Hong Kong as the “Safeguarding National Security Ordinance” had been enacted for nearly nine months. This report is a summary of the key issues discussed.
The workshop was held under the Chatham House Rule with nearly 30 scholars, legal practitioners, journalists, human rights defenders, and members of NGOs taking part and discussing. It was organized into four sessions, with two presenters for each session.
The focus of individual sessions were:
- Reflections on Hong Kong’s rule of law from temporal and cross-jurisdictional perspectives.
- Hong Kong’s continued application of international human rights law.
- Challenges of enforcing economic and social rights in Hong Kong.
- The Hong Kong diaspora’s rights-based advocacy in the UK.
The views summarized in this report were not necessarily shared by all participants. Nor do they represent the views of the two institutions co-hosting this event.
(Photo by Cheung Yin on Unsplash)